Another aniblogger tag thing but hey, we do it because its entertaining. Things were started by Iso of Nabe, with a rule of tagging 5 anibloggers further and I think it’s about time for me post mine as I’ve already been tagged thrice and feeling the burnt of many eyes expecting some answers. So, let me prattle off to Iso’s, foomafooandYippy’s questions along with my own tagging in the end.

Each person is supposed to follow the rule of fives.You are allowed to ask 5 questions, after which you can tag up to5 bloggers by hyper-linking to their blog; 5 questions because it’s not too many to flood another blogger and occupy too much of his/her time, but yet a large enough number to ask your most important questions, and 5 bloggers to avoid spamming. Hence, prioritize your questions, and who you wish to ask!

Those tagged are obliged to answer the questions in a blog post, and after which, they are entitled to create their own 5 questions and tag 5 other bloggers, so on and so fourth. You should answer your own 5 questions as well. You are allowed to tag the person that tagged you in the first place. Also, copy and paste this section on your blog so others can understand how the game goes.

In the case where a blogger strongly refuses to answer a question, he/she must instead post a nice anime image, wallpaper or cosplay picture, et cetera in response to that question.

To make things interesting, a blogger can include wildcards in his/her 5 questions by placing an asterisk, (*), after which those tagged are obliged to reveal something interesting about themselves that others did not previously know. There is no limit to the number of asterisks one can place (which means there can be up to 5 wildcard questions).

Anyone can feel free to start the game; you don’t necessarily need someone to tag you. Just create your 5 questions and tag your 5 people of choice. However, the catch is that you must answer your own 5 questions as well.

To potentially prevent an endless game, this round of games will end on the 8th September 2012, 12pm JST (GMT +9). After which, no more bloggers can tag others to answer their questions.

1) What is/are your favourite anime(s)? Why?

Okay, seriously, I think readers of Metanorn already got this covered with Kara no Kyoukai being my all time favourite. But, along with it, I have a special fondness towards Tatami Galaxy, Bake/Nisemonogatari, Durarara!!, Ultimate Hellsing and recently Fate/Zero.

2) What is/are your favourite anisongs?

It’s be very difficult to list all but here’s some of them in no particular order:

Bakemonogatari – Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari

Cowboy Bebop – Tank

Kara no Kyoukai – Oblivious

FMA: Brotherhood – Let it all out

Durarara!! – Uragiri no Yuuyake

Arakawa Under the Bridge – Venus to Jesus

K-On! – Don’t say lazy

Eden of the East – Falling Down, etc.

3) Do you like Vocaloid? If so, who is/are your favourites? And your favourite song(s) is/are? If not, why?

I haven’t been into them and just never got onto the bandwagon. But I did like some of the songs Miyu and Kara recommended to me.

4) Have you ever been to Japan? If yes, please share your experience. If no, where would you go if you had a chance to visit Japan?

I haven’t but I’d really like to some time in near future!

5) What are your hobbies outside of anything related to anime, manga, visual novels and blogging?

Hang out with friends and close cousins whenever I get the chance. The family factor has really gone over the max quotient since I moved back home. In between my busy schedule, if I do get time, I stay up to date about the changes in Digital Marketing/Production and the arena of social media communication.

1) Out of all the comments from all the posts in your blog, which one is your favorite and why. Name the person responsible for the comment of course.

This is a very hard question to answer because Metanorn has evolved through the years so much along with its readers. Honourable mentions go out to our top 15 commentors on the sidebar, who have stuck around through the years and have commented regularly. Their activity on site is what keeps us going after all. Though, personally, I got really fond of a recent comment left by Demented-P on a two-year-old post of Kara no Kyoukai (oh yeah, you should know, my love for this title would never fade). What I liked most about him is the fact that he revisited the page after more than a year just to say, how his rewatches of the series made him realize some observations and such. This is one of those comments, which can motivate me to write on any given day.

2) Name a trope that you wish you would hardly ever see again (or at least in lesser amount) in an anime. Why?

I like good romance stories and even if its not my most preferred genre, if it’s good; I’ll follow it till the end. However, there are many Slice of Life, Comedy and School centered anime that are riddled with the trope Will They or Won’t They. This is most annoying when you have a certain preference to character-pairing and they don’t end up together in the end. School Rumble, Honey & Clover and recent Chihayafuru comes to mind but there are many (oh, so many!) out there. Whenever I see this, I just sigh derisively to myself. Please stop this overuse…!

3) If ever an opportunity shows up where you’re asked to blog, and at the same time, earn something from it in exchange of doing posts about merchandise, would you do it? Why?

Depends on the merchandise really. I’ve tried my best to keep Metanorn ads free and even when approached multiple times about it, I’ve refused till now. The only condition or possibility that I can think of is if Type-Moon gives away some rare collector’s item by Nasu or Takeuchi in exchange of blog posts on it. I’d do it in a heart beat.

4) Tell all, if not, some of the fandoms you think you’re quite into compared to an average viewer, anime or not.

Kamina…. After his death episode, I’m still to finish TTGL and even when I rather like Simon, I just can’t go on knowing that Kamina won’t be there when it was he, who started this ridiculous yet awesome story for me.

1) Why are you still into anime/manga after all these year(s)? What keeps you interested in this mode of entertainment?

After two and a half years of active blogging and more than seven years of watching it, I don’t think I would ever get bored of it. Sure, there might be some ups and downs in terms of involvement or a mild hiatus but I won’t be throwing my towel any time soon. What keeps me interested is the ever evolving stories. In the end, most of the them are recirculation of old stuff but then you find gems among them that blow your mind. These are the things that keep me going and one of my character trait is ‘curiosity’ so even if my eyes don’t shine like Chitanda every time I say, “I’m curious!”, I pretty much am and when I get a good story, I’m latched on till the ends.

2) If you could only visit/revisit one anime/manga series before you er…kick the bucket, what would it be? *(Wildcard-tell something interesting about yourself)*

I might rewatch Gintama or finally finish some GTO episodes. When it’s time to kick the bucket per se, I’d rather go down laughing than shedding emotional tears.

Something interesting about me is the fact that I can speak four languages (English, Urdu, Hindi, Bengali) fluently, while four more (Sindhi, Punjabi, Arabic, Japanese) partially. I’d like to learn at least two more to make it a good rounded ten.

3) Who is your idol in the animanga industry? Be it a visionary director, a skilled seiyuu or even an animator, who is it?

I follow a lot of seiyuu. You can even call me a seiyuu fag for the lack of a better term because it’s gotten so bad that I recognize most of the voice actors without even seeing the credits. Recently, I was delighted by Hyouka’s guest appearance list when I heard Junichi Suwabe, Hirakawa Daisuke, Fukuyama Jun and even Tomokazu Sugita chiming in for a few minutes. It would be tough for me to pinpoint people I follow because they are MANY but some of the prominent ones from the top of my head are Maaya Sakamoto, Hiroshi Kamiya, Ono Daisuke, Yoshimasa Hosoya, Takahiro Sakurai, YUI, ryo, Shinbou, Omori, Nasu, Takeuchi, Redjuice, etc.

4) If you could have a chat with any fictional animanga character, who would it be?

This is a difficult one but it would be nice taking a tea break with Kokutou Mikiya at Ahnenerbe or a lazy afternoon stroll with Gintoki.

5) What’s the most important advice you’d give to a person who’s interested in writing as an aniblogger?

Write about something that you are passionate about and have more than just a passing interest on. Anime blogging is completely different from other genre of blogging because there’s really no set rule to it. Episodic blogs usually get pointed at like criminals as if we are the bad guys who started it all but let me assure you, episodic blogging will continue on till the end because anime won’t stop airing (at least for the next five years), and enthusiasts would always lurk around looking for a place of discussion.

I’ve seen aniblogging interest wane with time and most of the times, it’s because an anime series didn’t go the way you expected in the beginning. [C], Occult Academy, Ookami-san Guilty Crown, Sword Art Online and Fractale come to mind for this topic because some of them just failed while some at least exceeded some expectations. Picking a series is literally gambling at the beginning of every season but make sure you stick around it, even if it isn’t liked by all. There’s always a niche for every series. In short my sermon of wisdom boils down to:

Choose a topic you like

Be creative

Don’t stick to one format alone and experiment

Challenge yourself sometimes with different things if you are feeling bored

HAVE FUN because the day you stop is the day you should quit honestly speaking

I wanted to tag Hana, Verdant, Ness, Fosh and Jrow but as I’m already pretty late, I’ll leave it to the answers alone and you can always choose to reply to this post (the following questions are open to all commentors as well). I’m cheating in a way but no one can blame me as I at least tried to get an extension. Also, I’m tagging back Iso, foomafoo and Yippy for good measure! shakesfists

1) Being an aniblogger/anime watcher, what in your life has changed, something that might have not been there if you didn’t pick up this hobby?

At least I still write! I used to write short stories and some random stuff till I was in Uni but after I joined the work drones, I just couldn’t go on. Aniblogging for me was that ray of bright light, an extension of that writing if you will, which I always enjoyed and still love. I’m just glad, I still do it.

2) How were you in your highschool days? What’s the difference in your personality now? *

I was a complete tomboy, honestly. Used to stand up on my desk for water bottle fights and quarrel with boys (sometimes even fist fights yeah!). It was fun and I don’t regret one moment of it! If you’d see me now, you can’t even imagine that this girlie yet corporate looking person used to be so tomboyish. :3

3) The worst anime(s) ever.

School Days, Vampire Bund, the Boku no Pico series, ’nuff said.

4) A series that you thought would be shit but was brilliant.

Kurenai. I honestly started this series expecting some shitty pedoism but it actually turned out pretty decent. I liked the characters and the MC could actually become badass when he wanted to rather than whining (we usually get a slew of whiny MCs so understand my delight). An overall good watch that I can even rate over A certain Magical Index or even Yozakura Quartet OVAs.

Natsuyuki Rendezvous… You see, I’ve stopped covering it episodically because I just couldn’t go on. I don’t know who to blame but this story is just is and growing on me with its progression like a creeping plant (remember Houtarou covered in Chitanda’s hair in Hyouka’s first episode? I have the same feeling about Natsuyuki). There’s no explanation required rather than touching on raw emotions that are embroiled with love, longing, loss, memories, nostalgia, wishes, dreams, promises, infatuation, flowers, unsaid words, fairy tales, unarranged bouquets, sorrow and so much FEELINGS. It’s a situational dilemma of relationship as I’m just not experienced enough that it seems laughable to me to say anything about this except for defining love at its core. If you ask me I’d genuinely fall for Ryusuke and try to bury my past with Atsushi if I was Rokka but I’m not and I don’t have the heart to cover this regularly; rather would write an Editorial on it when it ends. I haven’t lost hope though, so no worries!

Anyways, I hope this was an interesting read for some people out there, specifically Iso, Foo and Yippy who tagged me. I’m sure if the deadline allowed, I would have told you some more saucy details about me but oh well… go blame Iso for not extending the deadline and making more anibloggers suffer. Though, don’t forget to answer my five questions as I genuinely want to know! Ja ne~

Related

The Boss lady of Metanorn, who makes it all happen. An animanga enthusiast, who watches/reads almost anything that strikes her fancy. Just beware of her Death Perception and always keep her happy. Regularly found at @KyokaiTM & #[email protected].

Oh god Natsuyuki Rendezvous is so mind-fuck right now!!! Kyo! Are you following it regularly!? Latest!?!? Oh my GOD, HAZUKI~!!!! T___T That love triangle continues to get more complicated by the minute but somehow it’s still dramatically entertaining! I wonder who’s Rokka going to choose…

I think you’ve totally misread it (I don’t *think* the translations were wrong). Her last sentence showed who she’s in love with now. She was missing Shimao, and amazed to get to meet him again, but I think it was pretty obvious that she realizes her time with Shimao is done.

I’m sure she would never stop loving Atsushi because after all, he was her first love and she gave all of her to him but then he moved on and she had to, too. Right now, I’m sure she wants to know Ryuusuke more because he made her realize of herself as a woman again. Something she had almost forgotten.

Ah, a little more info on the boss lady. Careful, there may be those using that info to stage a coup. LOL. High five on Bake/Nisemonogatari and Hellsing Ultimate. Too bad you didn’t enjoy Dance in the Vampire Bund though.

I guess I share your unique ability. I’ve seen enough anime that whenever I hear a particular voice, I can automatically figure out who they seiyuu is. But it gets tricky when the seiyuu uses a voice you’re not used to hearing from them (example: Hagure Yuusha no Estetica: Miu = Yoko Hikasa).

1) Watching Anime is something I developed when I was a kid. It’s become a main hobby of mine so I honestly don’t know what I’d be doing if I didn’t pick it up or what would do to occupy myself sometimes if it ever ceased altogether.

3) The worst animes ever in my opinion are:
No. 6: Tried to watch it despite the poor storytelling and increasing BL tones in the later half of the series.
Shining Hearts: It had promise at the beginning so I watched every episode hoping for improvement but sadly, most of it sucked and when there was actually some action, it was all rushed. The only memorable character there to me was the cat girl Xiao-Mei.
Medaka Box: I dropped that one the first episode. The main girl was a little too perfect and high and mighty.

4) A series that you thought would be shit but was brilliant: That one goes to Mirai Nikki. It succeeded at 100% where Deadman Wonderland only did at 50%. At first, the summary wasn’t impressive but the first episode changed all thoughts of doubt. Not to mention Gasai Yuno’s epic stalker yandere rape face towards Yukiteru at the end when she said she’d protect him. Every character in the anime was insane and immensely depraved in every way imaginable and the story was very unpredictable and had plenty of twists and keep the viewer right there and not lost in the complexity of the story.

When I read the genres for the anime, I didn’t expect any BL vibes so it became troublesome to continue. I did, however, because I was more than halfway into the story and at least wanted to know how it ended. But on the other hand, I’m a big fan of yuri. It’s my second favorite thing.

BB, don’t worry, there’s no coup happening anytime soon. :3
About Dance in the Vampire Bund, I heard the manga is great but I just didn’t like how Shaft treated it.

I agree about Mirai Nikki, man that show was underestimated from the start but came out as such a good mindfuck. Because you skipped, 2 and 5 – I wanna know whyyyyyy! xD

About No.6, BB/akagami – it was legitimately shounen ai and for me, why I still liked it is not because I like yaoi but I thought whoever would be in that number of events, would eventually like each other whatever gender they were. But, I understand your POV too. :3

But still, beware of any attempts of a coup and if there are any, cut them up.

The manga for Dance in the Vampire Bund is awesome. In fact, I’m at ch 49 and there’s still 10 more for me to check out. What was bittersweet about the anime was half of it followed the manga and the other was random stuff like the girl carrying around hard candies and her past which was irrelevant. Also, in comparison, Mina Tepes has pink hair in the cover art of the manga instead of blonde in the anime.

I skipped 2 and 5 because I didn’t give it much thought but now I have.

2) My personality in earlier years was average. Like I’d hang out with some friends, study in school enough to understand, do my homework as fast and thouroughly as I can and try to catch whatever is playing on Toonami.

The difference now is that I’m doing an internship so I’m flipping between school and my part time job while trying to make time for everything else.

5) Other than Medaka Box and No.6, my hardest anime to watch was Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon. The story was so all over the place that there was no proper direction for me to enjoy it. And the lead was too much of a clown to take seriously even if turns out to be the point.

Oh boy, am I late to this (*embarrassed face*), but thanks for the tag Kyo and for your lovely answers. 🙂 Here are some brief answers to your questions, if it’s not too late…

1) The biggest change in my life related to picking up anime as a hobby was learning about ani-blogs and ani-bloggers, and being lucky enough to make friends with quite a few of them via blog-commenting, then on twitter and facebook. As well as the general fun factor, I find it a continual source of inspiration too. Overall, a great way to keep the creative and collaborative juices flowing!

2)I was a bit of a wall-flower in Secondary School, definitely more comfortable in my own skin and assertive now. I think the change began at Uni, though I didn’t start watching anime until I finished my BA and MA (I studied English Lit.), during my PGCE (teacher training course) year, in fact. No idea if any of that is related, but I certainly enjoyed marathoning anime series during my teacher training year lol – it certainly provided a welcome distraction during some of my tougher school placements and assignments!

3) I’d rather not think about them, tbh… However, ‘Ocean Waves’ comes to mind. Not the worst, but, if you’re a Ghibli fan, you’d be severely disappointed, so I’d avoid that one if you can, fo’ sho’!

4) Oh man, clearly my memory ain’t what it used to be, ‘cos I can’t think of any… I know I don’t like things that are hyped up too much though, so I guess that’s why I generally avoid doing too much research before trying stuff out, as long as a few people whose opinions I trust have told me that it’s worth checking out. Life’s too short for sh*t anime, after all!

5) Hmm, perhaps Space Brothers by default, ‘cos it’s the only one I gave up on regularly epi-blogging, it was just moving too slowly and I’m kinda really busy these days. Hopefully I’ll finish it and do a holistic review or editorial of it soon-ish though, as I hate giving up on things, unless they’re just plain bad. It’s interesting that you mentioned Natsuyuki Rendezvous, Kyo, as I’m currently catching up with that (9, 10, 11 to go). Guess I have similar feelings about it, but I stopped regularly/ in-a-timely-fashion blogging that mainly ‘cos I was busy (crappy new school term is crappy), but, like with Space Bros, I intend to finish that soon-ish too.

…That’s it! Sorry it’s not that interesting, but it’s always nice to pause and reflect on things I guess. Thanks again, Kyo! 🙂